Woman charged with murder agrees to plea deal

Tuesday

A Hendersonville woman accused of intentionally hitting and killing a man with her car in June pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter Tuesday in Henderson County Superior Court.

A Hendersonville woman accused of intentionally hitting and killing a man with her car in June pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter Tuesday in Henderson County Superior Court.Morgan Bishop, 24, of Summit Knoll Park, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years to nearly five-and-a-half years in the N.C. Department of Corrections. Her pre-trial confinement of 172 days (nearly six months) is being credited as time served.Bishop was initially charged with first-degree murder and was facing the possibility of life in prison without parole or the death penalty. Her charges were downgraded in a plea deal between her attorney and the District Attorney's Office.Investigators said Bishop killed her live-in boyfriend, Roger Stuart Moody, 45, with her car at 11:30 p.m. June 29 on U.S. Highway 176 in East Flat Rock.Bishop's attorney, Greg Newman, said it was a "tragic and accidental act," but not murder in the first degree."I think that the issue for us, had the case gone to trial, was showing that it was strictly an accidental killing," he said.The couple had been arguing the night Moody died; he left the home they were in on foot, and according to Newman, Bishop went out to look for him. "She was looking to pick him up and take him home," Newman said. "She was searching for him on the side of the road. She was not looking for him to be there (in the middle of the road). She certainly was not trying to kill him," Newman said, adding that Bishop was on her cellphone talking to her mother when she struck Moody. "In looking at what happened, the relationship between these people was volatile," Newman said. "He had been abusive to her in the past."The very week Moody died, Newman said, "he had been in court and was found guilty of domestic violence" regarding an altercation with Bishop.Court records show that Moody had been convicted of 40 misdemeanors and five felonies dating back to 1989. Among his criminal charges were at least three other charges of assault on a female, including one in 1992 and another in 1995. Both were later dismissed by the District Attorney's Office.Moody was also in court in September 2011, when he entered a plea in a misdemeanor assault on a female case and was ordered to undergo counseling through Mainstay, a local domestic violence shelter and nonprofit, according to court records.A toxicology report revealed that Moody had twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system at the time of his death, Newman said.He added that Tuesday's plea bargain was a "good resolution.""It sort of came together quickly," he said. "This is something that she wanted to do."Bishop has been unable to make her bond of $500,000 and was not looking forward to sitting in jail for several more months awaiting trial, Newman said."When you go before a jury, you never know how people will look at it," he said. "By pleading this way, we remove the possibility of a jury coming back with something more serious."Newman said Bishop has had a history of mental illness. "She has been treated for different mental health symptoms really throughout most of her life," he said, and has "learning disabilities ... She never completed school.""She had a lot of obstacles to try to overcome," he added. Reach Weaver at emily.weaver@blueridgenow.com or 828-694-7867.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.